Wednesday 7 July 2010 10.01 EDT
First published on Wednesday 7 July 2010 10.01 EDT

Moscow and Washington are moving rapidly towards a spy swap that would exchange 10 accused Russian agents arrested in the US last week for alleged western spies jailed by Russia.

The Russian authorities were preparing to send a scientist, convicted six years ago of passing atomic secrets to US intelligence, to Britain as part of the swap, his family said. Igor Sutyagin was transferred from a remote Arctic penal colony to Moscow in preparation for the exchange. His father told the Guardian he was one of those to be used as "collateral" in the deal.

In the US, the New York Times reported that officials are in discussions with the lawyers of the alleged long-term, deep-cover Russian agents detained last week over plea bargains that would see them swiftly convicted of minor offences and sent back to Moscow. Five of the alleged spies were moved to New York at short notice today after court hearings were cancelled.

An exchange would avoid protracted and potentially embarrassing trials for both countries. The alleged spies' lack of success and the FBI's weak case would come under close scrutiny.

Sutyagin was arrested in 1999 and convicted five years later of passing secret material on atomic submarines and missile warning systems to a British-based consultancy firm that prosecutors in Moscow said was a CIA front.

There has been no official confirmation of the planned exchange but the scientist's father, Vyacheslav Sutyagin, told the Guardian that Russian intelligence officers said his son could be freed tomorrow:

"My wife Svetlana and Igor's brother, Dmitry, met with an officer from the Foreign Intelligence Service [SVR] at Lefortovo who explained the plan," he said. "He said that Igor and nine other people who they have rounded up in Russia will be swapped for the spies who were arrested in the United States. It was not clear why, but it seems that Igor will go to Austria and from there to Britain."

He added: "In order for them to let him go, my son had to sign a document accepting that he was a spy, which was morally oppressive for him but he had no choice if he wanted to gain his freedom.

"My son knows English well and we hope he may be able to find work in Britain."

Sutyagin's lawyer, Anna Stavitskaya, told a press conference that her client had received an "offer he couldn't refuse".

Supporters of Sutyagin, an arms control expert who worked for Moscow's prestigious USA and Canada Institute, have campaigned for years for his release saying the material he sold to the British consultancy firm came from open sources and he had no reason to suspect it was a CIA front.

Vyacheslav Sutyagin said he understood another of the people to be swapped would be Sergei Skripal, a Russian military intelligence officer jailed for treason for passing secrets to MI6 in the 1990s.

All but one of the 10 accused in the US are believed to be Russian citizens although the true identities of most of them remains unknown. The tenth is an American married to a Russian.

An 11th accused spy, named as Christopher Metsos, disappeared after being arrested on a US international warrant in Cyprus and then given bail.

The alleged spies are being held in prison on charges of working as unregistered agents of a foreign government. They are not accused of espionage.

Some of the defendants have admitted their role. One, calling himself Juan Lozaro, is a former professor who has passed himself off as Uruguayan. According to the FBI, he has admitted his family is from Russia and that he works for the SVR. But he has refused to reveal his true identity.

Two others, who posed as Michael Zottoli and Patricia Mills, a couple from New York and Canada, revealed their true identities in a Virginia court last week in order to be able to send their children back to Russia. The pair, whose real names are Mikhail Kutzik and Natalia Pereverzeva, were due in court again but the hearing was cancelled and it was announced they were to be moved to New York immediately along with a third defendant arrested in Virginia, Mikhail Semenko.

In Boston a couple going under the false names of Donald Heathfield and Tracey Foley were also sent to New York after a court hearing was called off. Heathfield is known to have stolen the identity of a Canadian who died as a small child.

There was no immediate comment from Washington and the British embassy in Moscow said it was unaware of the proposed spy swap. The SVR refused to comment.

The mother of another detained Russian, Anna Chapman, criticised the media coverage of her daughter and said she may take legal action against newspapers for invasion of privacy.

Irina Kushchenko said Chapman had always been "an independent and honest person".

Spy swaps

1962 The USSR released Gary Powers, pilot of a U-2 spy plane shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960, in return for Russian spy Rudolf Abel.

1969 Britain struck a deal with Moscow to release Peter and Helen Kroger from prison early in exchange for the freedom of lecturer Gerald Brooke, who was jailed for espionage in the Soviet Union.

1981 Günter Guillaume, a close aide to former West German chancellor Willy Brandt, was exchanged for captured western agents.

1985 US agents held in eastern Europe handed over in return for Polish agent Marian Zacharski and three others.